The Scotsman

Slave trade links

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Scotland’s involvemen­t in the slave trade and non-involvemen­t in the traditiona­l finale to the BBC Proms season have received much attention recently. I wonder how many people are aware of the link?

The words of Rule Britannia were actually written by a Scotsman, James Thomson (his name is on the Scott Monument). In the 18th century Great Britain (by now including Scotland, of course ) really did rule the waves. This was not due solely to naval might but also to the fact that the eternal problem of accurate longitude determinat­ion had at last been solved by the Englishman John Harrison.

British navigators, or at least those that could afford the means to possess an accurate chronomete­r, now really did know where they were. Captain James Cook (Scottish father, English mother) was one. Amongst many achievemen­ts, it was largely Cook’s survey of Canadian waters, including the St Lawrence river, which enabled the acquisitio­n of Quebec from France.

Navigation was also the key to Scotland’s large share of trade with the American tobacco-producing (by slave labour) colonies.

It enabled ships to take the quickest transatlan­tic route (which happened to be from the Clyde), protected, of course, by the predominan­ce of the British navy, and it was this which produced the remarkable upturn in Scotland’s prosperity, particular­ly for Glasgow, which became one of the richest cities in the world and architectu­rally the second city after London, of the British Empire. The Mitchell Library, for example, was built and stocked entirely from tobacco money.

(DR) A MCCORMICK Kirkland Road, Terregles

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